One body, boat recovered off Agrigento

Search ongoing for second body spotted floating off Sicily beach

(supersedes previous)(ANSA) - Agrigento, February 19 - The
Coast Guard on Friday recovered one of two bodies spotted
floating off the coast of Sicily, as well as a six-meter boat
believed to be a migrant vessel.
The body of a middle-aged man was retrieved earlier in the
day, and efforts are ongoing to recover the second body.
A Coast Guard helicopter spotted the bodies when it was
sent out for reconnaissance after Carabinieri police saw a group
migrants at a beach near the city of Agrigento.
When questioned by police via cultural mediators, the
migrants said there were around 40 of them and that a boat left
them at sea close to the coast.
Police are trying to ascertain how they arrived, how many
were on the boat to begin with, and how many fell overboard.
Agrigento prosecutors are investigating the two deaths.
Initial reports were of a group of 30 people on the beach,
where police found numerous personal effects.
Later reports say police took 15 people downtown for
questioning with the help of cultural mediators, and that an
unspecified number of migrants may have slipped away.